yed
in thus freeing themselves. The crew found but thirty thus shackled in
pairs, but many more pairs of shackles were found below. There could
not be a moment's doubt as to the light in which they viewed their
captors, now become their liberators. They rushed towards them in
crowds, and rubbed their feet and hands caressingly, even rolling
themselves on the deck before them; and, when they saw the crew of the
vessel rather unceremoniously sent over the side into the boat which
was to take them prisoners to the frigate, they set up a long
universal shout of triumph and delight. The actual number of the
negroes now on board, amounted to 447. Of those 180 were men, few,
however, exceeding twenty years of age; 45 women; 213 boys. The name
of the prize was the Progresso, last from Brazil, and bound to Rio
Janeiro. The crew were seventeen; three Spaniards, and the rest
Brazilians. The vessel was of about 140 tons; the length of the
slave-deck, 37 feet; its mean breadth, 211/2 feet; its height, 31/2
feet--a horrible space to contain between four and five hundred human
beings. How they could even breathe is scarcely conceivable. The
captain and one of the crew were said to have been drowned in the surf
at the embarkation of the negroes. Two Spaniards, and a Portuguese
cook, were sent back into the prize.

As the writer understood Spanish, and as some one was wanting to
interpret between the English crew and those managers of the negroes,
he proposed to go on board with them to their place of destination,
the Cape of Good Hope. The English crew were a lieutenant, three petty
officers, and nine seamen. It had been the captain's first intention
to take a hundred of the negroes on board the frigate, which would
probably have prevented the fearful calamities that followed; but an
unfortunate impression prevailed, that some of them were infected with
the small-pox. In the same evening the Progresso set sail. For the
first few hours all went on well--the breeze was light, the weather
warm, and the negroes were sleeping on the deck; their slender supple
limbs entwined in a surprisingly small compass, resembling in the
moonlight confused piles of arms and legs, rather than distinct human
forms. But about an hour after midnight, the sky began to gather
clouds, a haze overspread the horizon to windward, and a squall
approached. The hands, having to shorten sail, suddenly found the
negroes in the way, and the order was given to send them